There are so many ways that ChatGPT and LLMs (Large Language Models) can aid creativity, and I found one more way. I’ve been wanting to recreate Southern Pacific’s club lounge car 2982 in HO scale.

This car provided first class reserved seat service with sandwich and cocktail options to passengers riding between San Francisco and Monterey on the famous Del Monte train in the 1960s. I don’t want to spend a fortune on a brass model, so I set out to make it in styrene.

I don’t have a steady enough hand to cut the windows myself, so I had ChatGPT do it for me. Or rather, I had ChatGPT write a Python script that would convert my window measurements into a SVG file, that I could then load into a Cricut cutting machine.

 

It took me a few iterations to get the window placement right, but when I figured it out, the cutting process went better than I could have hoped for. Here are a few pictures of the finished sides. I plan to attach the sides to an old Rivarossi car. Stay tuned.